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Deep space atomic clock1/4/2024 If the probes had clocks stable and precise enough to allow them to chart their own course, however, they could do some of that navigation autonomously, reports Jonathan Amos at the BBC. That process relies on NASA’s Deep Space Network, an array of radio antennas that can only handle so much space traffic at any given moment. A signal is sent from Earth and immediately bounced back to mission control, allowing the probe’s handlers to calculate its exact position based on how long it took the signal to reach them. Kasandra Brabaw at reports that most probes sent into the cosmos are tracked from Earth via radio waves, which travel at light speed. But this is no ordinary clock: the Deep Space Atomic Clock is a technology that could make navigating deep space much easier in the future. One of the most intriguing payloads was a clock, which will tick along for about a year as it circles the planet. JPL manages the project.Early yesterday morning, NASA launched a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket into orbit with a hodgepodge of science missions aboard. It is sponsored by the Technology Demonstration Missions program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Space Communications and Navigations program within NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. The Deep Space Atomic Clock is hosted on a spacecraft provided by General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems of Englewood, Colorado. The clock’s in-space mission will validate its stability in orbit, fully characterize its long-term performance, and demonstrate its capability as a navigation instrument. The Deep Space Atomic Clock will enable a shift to a more efficient, flexible and scalable clock architecture that will benefit future navigation and radio science. Launched in June 2019, NASA’s Deep Space Atomic Clock is a critical step toward enabling spacecraft to safely navigate independently in deep space rather than rely on the time-consuming process of waiting to receive directions from Earth. Now, it’s testing that accuracy in space. Up to 50 times more stable than the atomic clocks on GPS satellites, the mercury-ion Deep Space Atomic Clock loses one second every 10 million years, as proven in controlled tests on Earth. For space exploration, atomic clocks must be extremely precise: an error of even one second can mean the difference between landing on Mars or missing it by hundreds of thousands of miles. They need to be miniaturized and toughened in order to venture off our planet.Ītomic clocks, like those used in GPS satellites, are used to measure the distance between objects by timing how long it takes a signal to travel from Point A to Point B. While ground-based atomic clocks are phenomenally accurate, their designs are too bulky, power hungry and sensitive to environmental variations to be practical for spaceflight. This results in a clock system that can remain ultra-stable over decades. These clocks measure very stable and precise frequencies of light emitted by specific atoms, using them to regulate the time kept by more traditional mechanical, quartz crystal clocks. Since the 1950s, the gold standard for timekeeping has been ground-based atomic clocks.
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